Phuket in Bloom

It's now getting into the "high" season in Phuket, with sunny skies, occasional thunderstorms at night and light winds. The "low" season ended a month or so ago. The summer months are also called the Green Season since the rain (while not being so welcome for tourists) is lapped up by trees, bushes, grass and flowers. Even with all the development, Phuket is a very green island (not that you'd believe it if you're walking through Patong). You can find countless photos on this blog showing green hills, palm trees, rubber plantations and forests. There are also lots of flowers. People here love to have plants around the house and garden and you'll find many garden shops in Phuket selling everything from trees to stones to garden furniture, and lots of orchids...

The variety of orchids is amazing. We have more than 20 species around our garden - sounds like a lot....but it's estimated there are more than 25,000 orchid species! And they sure are purty lil' things. Now I'm no gardener, and my wife tends to buy the plants and make things look nice, but I certainly appreciate orchids. Thanks to Google power, I just found out that orchids get their name from the Greek orchis, meaning "testicle". Not a lot of people know that.

So, without further ado, without any delay, here's some photos of flowers in our garden, some of them being orchids. Enjoy.